Dobroflot

[[file:1881dobroflot-1.png|thumb|Rank insignia of the Dobroflot 1881{{sfn|Васильев|2016}}:

1. Captain

5. Junior Mate / Junior Engineer]]

Dobroflot was founded in wake of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), with the intent of providing Russia with a fleet of fast armed merchantmen. By the time its first three ships were purchased from Hamburg American Line in June 1878, the war was already over, and the ships were instead used first as troopships to repatriate Russian soldiers from Turkey, then as peacetime merchant ships. The establishment of Dobroflot started an arms race among the world's major maritime powers, in which governments would subsidize the constructions of privately owned merchant ships, on the stipulations that these would be available for conversions to auxiliary cruisers during wartime.

In 1902, an Italian company began negotiating with the committee of the Russian Volunteer Fleet to open a new line between the Black Sea and North America via Italy.{{cite news |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=August 4, 1902 |page=5 |url=https://archive.org/details/for-a-russian-american-line |title=For A Russian-American Line. Italian Proposal to the Russian Volunteer Fleet Committee}} The Russian Volunteer Fleet began sailing to New York carrying immigrants{{cite news |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=September 1, 1902 |title=New Russian-American Line: Steamship Service From Black Sea Ports, Via Italy, Arranged for Emigrant Traffic |page=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/new-russian-american-line}} in November 1903.{{cite news |publisher=The New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=November 13, 1903 |page=1 |title=The Russian-American Line: Service to be Inaugurated on Nov. 28 with Volunteer Fleet Vessels |url=https://archive.org/details/the-russian-american-line}}

The Hamburg-American Line, in July 1906 intended to start offering a service from Libau in direct competition with the Russian Volunteer Fleet.{{cite news |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=June 25, 1906 |title=Rival to Russian Line |url=https://archive.org/details/rival-to-russian-line |page=5}} The announcement was received poorly, as Russia didn't want competition for the Russian Volunteer Fleet.{{cite news |work=New-York Tribune |location=New York, New York |date=November 17, 1906 |title=Refuses German Concessions: Russia Will Not Permit Competition In Carrying Emigrants from Baltic Ports |page=4 |url=https://archive.org/details/refuses-german-concessions-russia-will-not-permit-competition-in-carrying-emigrants}}{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/speaks-for-poland-at-russian-dinner-new-line-has-a-send-off |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=July 28, 1906 |page=7 |title=New Line Has a Send-Off: Roosevelt and the Czar Toasted at Banquet on the Smolensk of the New York-Libau Route}}

Throughout its existence Dobroflot provided invaluable services for both the government and the economic development of Russia - particularly the Russian Far East, with Dobroflot established the first regular maritime link between Vladivostok and European Russia. Moreover, Dobroflot ships were requisitioned for naval services during both the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, thereby fulfilling the original raison d'etre of Dobroflot.

After the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War the ships of the fleet became dispersed over various countries, and Soviet Russia made efforts via international courts to have them returned. Dobroflot was restored in the Soviet Union in 1922 and included into the Sovtorgflot ("Soviet Commercial Fleet") in 1925.

• Dobrolyot

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.vexillographia.ru/russia/EmpirVed.htm#dobflot Dobroflot] at "Departmental Flags of the Russian Empire" page {{in lang|ru}}
• [http://mj.rusk.ru/show.php?idar=801220, People's Voluntary Fleet], В. Дукельский, Московский журнал № 8 — 2006 г. {{in lang|ru}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Васильев |first=Кирилл Сергеевич |title=Добровольный флот |trans-title=Voluntary Fleet |url=http://vedomstva-uniforma.ru/mundir16/dobroflot/index.html |magazine=Петербургский коллекционер [Petersburg collector] |place=St. Petersburg |date=2016 |volume=4 |issue=96 |pages=102–105}}

{{commons category}}

Category:Transport companies established in 1878

Category:Defunct shipping companies of Russia

Category:Shipping companies of Russia

Category:Defunct transport companies of Russia

Category:Shipping companies of the Soviet Union

Category:1878 establishments in the Russian Empire

Category:Transport companies disestablished in 1925

Category:1925 disestablishments in the Soviet Union

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